Exploratour - The Surface of Europa

Welcome to the Exploratour of the Surface of Europa. The navigation button for the tour can be found at the top of the page. In this tour we will describe the global surface of Europa. You can skip ahead if you like by using the links at the bottom of this page. To proceed with the tour, just press the forward link (F) on the button at the top of the page.

There is no movie of a rotating Europa to start this tour! We are still learning about Europa, and portions of its surface have yet to be mapped. Instead, on this tour, we will show you what we have learned about Europa so far by studying geologic features on its surface.

The picture to the left shows the first impressions of we had of the icy moon Europa closeup. This view is from the Voyager spacecraft and was taken in 1979. The surface seems to be smooth but cracked in places.

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